


What's in a Name?

by cosmicallybrownie



Category: Satan and Me (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M, One Shot, coffee shop AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 09:51:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7679767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicallybrownie/pseuds/cosmicallybrownie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael writes everything but Natalie's name on her cup. She finds she doesn't mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's in a Name?

Of course she was running late. She wouldn’t have minded the slow pace of the buzzing coffee shop otherwise. The barista took her name with a wide smile and stepped back to personally make her coffee. That would have been fine with her if he would have been purposeful with his movements, but everything seemed to take him too long, as if he was begging her to watch. By the time the cup was being passed to her, Natalie was almost sitting on the side of annoyed. She took it from him with a short “thanks” and dashed out the door. 

Quietly creeping through the back entrance of the lecture hall, Natalie caught the door behind her and the professor didn’t even break the dull monotone of his speech. Instead of making her way down to her usual seat near the front, she sat in an empty seat near the back. Looking around, Natalie saw that the majority of the students were either half listening, or not listening at all. She guessed she hadn’t missed much after all. The coffee was a sweet aid that helped her stay awake during the boring lecture. It may have been boring, but Psychology 101 was a prerequisite to many other classes she wanted to take for her major. Of course she just had to have the most boring professor on campus for it.   
  
Fiddling with the almost empty cup, Natalie turned it around to discover ‘Gingersnap’ written in large flowing handwriting. There’s no way that was an accident. She saw the face of the barista who wrote it, he knew exactly what she was doing. What a cheeky little…  
  
The lecture ended promptly at its scheduled time and Natalie returned to her dorm until her next class. With hesitation, she placed the empty cup on her dresser and cracked open her psychology book to try and make sense of what her professor had said. Maybe she just struggled to understand people.   
  
A few days later, Natalie found herself rushing to the small coffee shop in an attempt to caffeinate before her psych lecture. She wasn’t sure if she would survive otherwise. Once she got up to the front if the line, lo and behold! The man from her first trip there was standing at the ready with a cup, sharpie, and wide smile. She made sure to enunciate her name this time, much to the man’s amusement. Just like before, he swept back to prepare her coffee in wide, flashy motions. Natalie just watched him do his thing before accepting the coffee. Any annoyance was drowned out by a sudden jolt of affection when his fingers brushed hers and for a moment Natalie almost forgot she was in a hurry. The moment was broken by him lightly tapping on her watch, and she rushed out of the door, the name on the cup a forgotten detail.   
  
The professor was dragging a fifteen minute lecture about Pavlov’s dogs into an hour affair and she began to fidget in her seat in the back. Suddenly, her attention was drawn back to the cup and she turned it to reveal 'Beautiful’ written on it in the same penmanship as before. Natalie almost laughed at the obvious flattery before turning the cup away. She was sure the barista made tons of girls happy with the sappy words on their cups too. Maybe Natalie stacked it with her other cup when she returned to her dorm anyway.   
  
The next time she entered the coffee shop, she was in no hurry. In fact, she had slept in and was taking her time in getting her day started. The building was almost cleared out and she had her eyes on a spot in the corner she was going to set up and study in. When she stood in front of the counter to order, she noticed him. The same man, here with a fresh sharpie. Suppressing a sigh, she ordered and spelled out her name for him. He nodded and wrote as she spoke, posture still as confident as ever. He winked at her and stepped back to prepare the drink. She sat down to begin working and heard her name called shortly afterwards. The handsome man was holding the cup, waiting for her. She glanced at his name tag when she took the cup from him and it seemed he made sure that their fingers would brush.   
  
“Thank you, Michael,” she said before turning the cup to see 'Gorgeous’ sprawled across the cup. Looking back at him, she almost cracked a smile at his amused one but she couldn’t let this man win.   
  
Her voice was saturated with annoyance when she spoke, “My name is Natalie, N-a-t-a-l-i-e. Not these cheap names you give every girl."   
  
When she looked back at him, his smile was wider, "They’re not for every girl. Just for you, Gingersnap."   
  
With that, Natalie let out a noise of frustration and went back to her station to study. And maybe she drank her coffee so slowly that she could walk out of there with her cup to keep. Not like Michael would notice.   
  
(He did.)   
  
It became a routine, on Tuesdays and Thursdays before her class, Natalie would order coffee and the barista she begrudgingly admitted was handsome would write something on her cup. He still asked for her name in a teasing tone every morning and she still gave it, but it mattered not. Her collection was steadily growing and cups that said 'Michael,’ 'Caramel Frap,’ 'Nitilie,’ 'eilataN,’ and other horrible spellings of her name were added to the stack on her desk.   
  
The months grew colder and the semester neared the end. The coffee shop was always packed this time of year and the man could no longer take the time to hand make her coffee, but somehow he always found time to wink at her as another poor barista was forced to call out whatever name he assigned to her that day. The poor man who tried to read her name the day Michael wrote is backwards ended up stammering over it for a minute before calling out the order instead. Natalie and Michael shared a moment of eye contact and laughter that day and she swore she saw color in Michael’s cheeks.   
  
The last Thursday of the semester crept up quickly and Natalie found herself telling this to the barista. Panic bloomed in his eyes as he scribbled something that was definitely not her name on the cup. The process took longer than normal and by the time she heard her name called, she was anxiously glancing at the clock. She couldn’t be late for her final.   
  
Rushing to the class, she made it just on time and took the final that was just as exciting as any of the professor’s lectures. Finishing the exam, she grabbed her bag and coffee and hefted out the door. It wasn’t until she returned to her dorm that she looked at the cup. Her name, correct spelling and all, was written on the cup. She didn’t know if she was more surprised by her actual name being on the cup, or the number that was undoubtedly his written under it.   
  
It wasn’t until halfway through her winter break when she texted him.   
  
_hey mikehell_  
  
**i probably deserved that one but in my defense you never asked me to stop Gingersnap**  
  
_I thought u would understand when I told u my name everyday. What do u want from me?_  
  
**go on a date with me**    
  
Natalie blankly stared at her screen for a moment reading that text over and over. Even though it was a simple text, she felt her face flush. She hesitated in her reply. Little did she know that the man who sent it was pacing his room dying to hear back from her and desperately hoping he hadn’t scared her off.   
  
No one was more surprised than Michael by her reply.   
  
_lets go for coffee and see if there’s anyone out there who can spell my name_

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> This fic and all others can be found on my tumblr account under my writing tag  
> cosmicallybrownie.tumblr.com/tagged/hot-off-the-presses


End file.
